I think it's really hard for me to decide which Stanley Kubrick movie I like the most, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, or THE SHINING. He outdoes himself again with his directing in this film. I love the close shots of characters and then zooming back to show the rest of the background or when a character is walking around the hotel, how he centers the character in the middle of the frame so as to see all of the open space behind him/her.
However, just as Kubrick's directing was top notch, so was Jack Nicholson. He was born to play this part. I don't think anybody else could be this sick, twisted and demented yet still be able to make me laugh with this dialogues and mannerisms. My favorite scene in the film has to be when Jack Nicholson (Jack Torrance) is in the bathroom talking with Philip Stone (Delbert Grady) about him hacking up his family and being the previous caretaker. That scene is just so chilling and intense, I absolutely loved it. This is one of the few Stephen King novels I've read and I enjoyed Kubrick's movie more than King's book. The ending to this film was much more chilling than King's novel. This is one of the greatest horror movies of all-time!
